Mediterranean Migrant Arrivals Reach 29,369; Deaths: 663

You are here

Switzerland - IOM reports that 29,369 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017 through 2 April, with over 80 percent arriving in Italy and the rest in Spain and Greece. This compares with 172,089 through the first 93 days of 2016.

Mediterranean Developments
Total arrivals by sea and deaths in the Mediterranean 2016-2017

1 January – 2 April 2017

1 January – 4 April 2016

Country of Arrival

Arrivals

Deaths

Arrivals

Deaths

Italy

24,513

602(Central Med. route)

19,287

355 (Central Med. route)

Greece

3,856

14(Eastern Med. route)

152,137

366(Eastern Med. route)

Cyprus

n.a.

27

Spain

1,000

47(Western Med. route)

638

28(Western Med. route)

Estimated Total

29,369

663

172,089

749

IOM Rome spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo reported Monday that 1,388 migrants have arrived by sea to Italy since IOM’s last report. With arrivals to Italy approaching the 25,000 mark, this year’s passage on the Mediterranean’s central route is running more than 25 percent ahead of last year’s total at this same point. Annual total for 2016 on this route was 181,436. If current trends persist, IOM estimates that total arrivals for 2017 would surpass 200,000 for the first time since the start of the current emergency.

IOM Libya’s Christine Petré reported Monday that On 1 April, 119 migrants (11 women, 101 men and seven children) were rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard off Az Zawiyah. The migrants were taken to Shuhada Al Nasr detention centre where IOM’s implementing partner STACO provided medical assistance to 21 migrants, including a 23-year-old man with burn injuries over 35 percent of his body. He was provided with initial treatment at the detention centre and is in the process of being transferred to a medical clinic for further treatment.

On 2 April, 38 migrants (all men) were rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard off Az Zawiyah and also taken to Shuhada Al Nasr detention centre. So far in 2017, 3,839 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya and 171 bodies have been retrieved.

At this time last year, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP) recorded 749 Mediterranean fatalities, nearly half of those occurring off Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 2017, so far 14 fatalities have been recorded on this route, with another 47 recorded off Spain and 602 recorded documented in the waters between Libya and Italy. These data include seven bodies recovered last week in Libya.

Worldwide, the IOM Missing Migrants Project reports that fatalities through 3 April number 1,169 (see chart, below), with the Mediterranean region accounting for the largest proportion of deaths – over half of the global total. This is over 400 fewer than at the same point in 2016. However, these data do not account for full reporting from North Africa and the Horn of Africa, two migration corridors where data collection tends to be slower than in other regions.

Comparative table of global totals of MMP data for 1 Jan–3 April 2016 and 2017